title: The importance of striving for greater efficiency.
abstract: Health care costs are rising faster than inflation in almost all developed countries. Improving the efficiency of health care will go some way to address this issue. There has been a significant improvement in the delivery of sexual health care with a particular focus on innovation. In this issue, Baraitser et al. evaluate their services, that uses computer-assisted interviewing combined with self-collected samples in London. This editorial discusses this service in the context of the control of sexually transmissible infections and other recent health care innovations.
authors.forename: Christopher K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Fairley
authors.forename: Lenka A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Vodstrcil
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Read
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics; D019049:Developed Countries / Q000191:economics*; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D008131:London; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D034121:Reproductive Health Services / Q000191:economics; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000191:economics* / Q000517:prevention & control; D013222:State Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration